V. I. Lenin

How Certain Social-Democrats Inform the International About the State of Affairs in the R.S.D.L.P.

Published:Sotsial-Demokrat No. 17, September 25 (October 8), 1910.

      Published according to the text inSotsial-Demokrat.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1974],

      Moscow,Volume 16,

      pages284-286.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

Inconnection with the International Congress in Copenhagen
articles have appeared in a number of publications on the state of affairs
in our Party. We shall dwell briefly on three articles written by spokesmen
of three different Party (or rather ante-Party) trends.

Thefirst place for unceremoniousness should go to an article which
appeared, sad to relate, in the central press organ of our comrades in
Germany (Vorwärts, August 28). This article is anonymous. It
is merely subtitled “From Our Russian Correspondent”.

Fromit the reader learns that “the Russian emigrants, who play a
disproportionately great role in our Party, have never been so remote from
the interests and requirements of the Russian labour movement as they are
today”, that the Central Organ of our Party,Sotsial-Demokrat,
“is being conducted in a narrow factional spirit” and that the Bolsheviks
are noted for “formal and superficial radicalism”, that it is only by a
process of evolution that they have finally come to a “recognition” of
parliamentarism, and so on and so forth. The author is extremely
dissatisfied with the majority of our Party. He paints a very black picture
of the whole situation in the Party. He sees only one bright spot in the
life of the R.S.D.L.P. This is “the workers’ newspaperPravda,
published in Vienna, which from the outset has stood completely aloof from
factional polemics and devotes itself to political agitation”, and so
forth.

Don’tyou begin to guess, reader, to whose “non-factional” pen this
article belongs? You are not mistaken, of course.Yes, it is the “non-factional” Comrade Trotsky, who has no compunction
about openly advertising his faction’s propaganda sheet. He provides the
insufficiently informed German readers with the same appraisal of the
policy of the Party majority as that made by the

			     liquidators.[1]

Anotherliterateur,R. Streltsov, set out to libel our Party
in the organ of the German revisionists. His article Was published in theSozialistische Monatshefte, which is edited by Herr Bloch, whom
Bebel in Magdeburg justly called a National Liberal. R. Streltsov—who
collaborates with Mr. Prokopovich on the newspaperTovarishch{4}—quite openly takes the liquidators under his
protection. “Nothing could be more absurd than the accusation which is
being made against them.” It is the liquidators who are the real
Social-Democrats. As for the Party majority, it, you see, “considers
superfluous the utilisation of so-called legal opportunities, i. e., the
participation of the Social-Democrats in the trade unions, co-operative
societies, legal congresses, and so forth.” Yes, indeed, the German reader
will get a true picture if he studies the history of the Russian revolution
from Cherevanin and the contemporary situation and tactical struggle inside
our Party—from Streltsov and Trotsky!

Thethird article is from the pen of the ultimatumist (and god-builder)
Voinov, writing inLe Peuple,{5}the Party organ of our Belgian

			      comrades.[2]And although Voinov gives the Belgian comrades a wrong idea of the
“tactical trends in our Party” (the heading of his article) still, in one
respect, his article has performed a valuable service:

it has revealed to us once again the essence of otzovist ultimatumist
tactics. Occasionally we do come across blessed writers in theVperyodgroup who expound the aimsof the otzovist-ultimatumists openly without veiling them, as is the common
practice in the literary utterances of the Vperyodists. Listen for
yourselves. What member of theVperyodgroup would frankly admit now
that the otzovist ultimatumists are still dreaming about fighting squads, etc.?
But the candid Voinov writes frankly that he and his friends want to
“continue and develop our preparation for armed action”, whereas
Lenin, who has swung to the Right, denies “for example, the necessity of
training schools” at the present time. What Yperyodist now says openly
that an “ultimatum” must be sent to the Duma group? But the good Voinov
informs us frankly that the “regeneration of the Party” is necessary to
his friends in order to “present an ultimatum to our
deputies”.... What Vperyodist will tell you in the press for what purpose
the otzovist-ultimatumists require a “Party school” abroad? But the
loquacious Voinov does not Omit to inform us that the “school” is
necessary for preparing a “new congress” of the Party and the
election of a different Central Committee in place of the present
“Right-wing” Central

Committee.[3]Surely theVperyod“diplomats” will not thank Voinov for this
candour!

Trotsky,Voinov and Streltsov have fraternally joined hands in opposing
the Party line....

[1]The fact that this article was published in a Party organ likeVorwärtsimpelled our delegates at the Copenhagen Congress to
make a protest to the Central Committee of the German Party. This protest
was lodged by the delegates of our Central Organ (G. V. Plekhanov and
A. Varsky) and by the Party’s representative on the International Bureau

(N. Lenin).{6}It was while this question was being discussed by the
Social-Democratic delegation that Comrade Trotsky divulged to us the secret
that he himself had written the offending article.  —Lenin

[2]Voinov thoughtfully informs the readers that he is a “delegate at the
International Congress in Copenhagen”.  —Lenin

[3]In this article Voinov thought it expedient ... to add a little boast
that “some members of the C.C. elected at the Congress, but dissatisfied
with the C.C.’s new policy have resigned.” Where and when was that,
Comrade Voinov?
—Lenin

{6}The protest at the publication inVorwärtsof Trotsky’s
article slandering the R.S.D.L.P. was written during the session of the
International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen.

{4}Tovarishch(The Comrade)—a bourgeois daily
newspaper published in St. Petersburg from 1906 until 4908 with the close
participation of S. N. Prokopovich and Y. D. Kuskova. Though formally not
the organ of any particular party, it was in fact the mouthpiece of the
Left Constitutional-Democrats. It also published contributions from
Mensheviks.

{5}Le Peuple(People)—a daily newspaper, the Central
Organ of the Belgian (reformist) Labour Party, published from 1884 in
Brussels.